Wednesday, 31 August 2016

A Visit to 'Bear Bile Bee Farm' in Paju, South Korea

Last Sunday, Mr. Park brought me to visit a bee farm (웅담양봉원) in Paju. Paju is one of the cities located in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. From Seoul, it takes about 1.5 hours drive to there. The farm is at countryside, so we took longer time to reach our destination.

We were welcome by the beekeeper (nickname: Honey Bear) once we arrived. After he directed us to sit under canopy besides his house, he treated us honeycomb and lemon water with honey produced by his bees. A few of bees also flew towards us; not to welcome us I know but they were attracted by the smell of honeycomb and honey from the cups.

yummy honeycomb

Honey Bear showed us his beehives which positioned under the canopy too, he then removed a frame of capped honeycomb from the beehive and explained in Korean pertaining beeswax and honey. Well, I speak no Korean so Mr Park became my translator at the site.

beehives

frames of honeycomb in the beehive

the beekeeper - Honey Bear

Later, Honey Bear took out from refrigerator some natural skincare products made by him using beeswax, propolis...etc. I tested out his lotion. I would say his is better than my version. It is moist enough and the smell of coconut oil is not overwhelming.He has 5 sorts of honey; from the lightest golden yellow to darkest dark brown. All sorts of honey are produced by honey bees who suck nectar from different kinds of flora such as acacia, chestnut & strawberry tree. We chose to buy strawberry honey after we did a tasting on all types.

Before leaving, he gifted us some self-made skincare products as souvenirs. I'm enjoying!